Generally this invention relates to the field of areaways, the enclosures for basement windows. More specifically, the invention relates to areaway escape systems. The invention also concerns improvements to areaway designs which allow the space within an areaway to become useful and appealing to residential and commercial users.
For more than a century the technique of allowing light in through a basement window has existed in order to make the space more desirable and made it meet other requirements. In large part the technique has been accomplished through the use of an areaway to surround the bottom and sides of the basement window to hold earth away from the window so that light can be admitted. An early effort in this regard is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 300,654 to Smith for an "area window protector" first patented in 1884. Many other areaway designs and improvements have been patented since that date. In almost every one of these designs, the focus has been to provide a design which admits light and which excludes earth. The latter of these goals has been met with varying degrees of success. Often elaborate designs have been proposed, including some which are formed as an integral part of the foundation surrounding the basement window. Even with such elaborate designs, none have been entirely effective in completely excluding the earth surrounding the areaway and none have sought to utilize the volume outside the basement window and within the areaway. Generally, this volume has been ignored by those skilled in the art of areaway design. It has apparently been viewed as "a necessary evil" or simply an area which needs to be open in order to admit the desired light.
In recent years it has been discovered that the areaway was also useful as an escape avenue in the event of fire or some other catastrophe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,334 to Webb describes an areaway entitled "Webb Basement Window Escape." Although not a true areaway but an extension of basement space beyond the foundation wall, this 1976 patent appears to be the first to recognize that the basement window could be useful as a means of escape. Although--with the benefit of hindsight--it may at first glance appear surprising that it took almost 92 years to improve a product similar to an areaway to allow it to become a means of escape, this delay makes sense when it is understood that those skilled in the art of areaway construction tended to improve existing designs in small degrees rather than to freshly innovate to overcome undesirable limitations. This is why until the present invention the seemingly simple combination of allowing for an escape system and utilizing the space within the areaway for aesthetic and practical purposes has not been proposed. Those skilled in the art were usually primarily practical people who sought to overcome one perceived problem rather than people who completely re-thought areaway systems.
The present invention focuses on the desirability to allow not only additional safety features to be incorporated within an areaway, but also to provide some designs which, rather than ignoring the space within the areaway, make that space useful to occupants of the building. In addition to achieving these goals, embodiments of the present invention have been designed with features that accommodate the perspectives of not only the consumer, but also the supplier, the installer, and the manufacturer.
In addressing each of the various perspectives of those involved with the product from its manufacture through its replacement, various independent desires have been accommodated. With respect to the consumer, the present invention allows for an aesthetic use of space and for additional safety features as mentioned. In addition, the design avoids the difficulties of maintaining the space and providing for drainage inside the areaway. With respect to both the supplier and the manufacturer, the design allows for a unitary construction which is not only easily manufactured, but which can be nested for shipping and storage. With respect to the installer, the design avoids any need to integrate the areaway with the foundation so that simple installation and, perhaps more commercially significant, simple replacement can be accomplished. In this fashion the design is adaptable to both existing structures and even to replacement of existing areaways. Prior to the present invention, no solution to these various goals was accomplished by any one areaway design.
Another key element to some embodiments of the present invention was the recognition that in earlier inventions it was assumed that exclusion of earth from the areaway was a desirable feature. The present invention overcomes this perceived limitation and avoids the need for many of the features inherent once such a goal is assumed. This is accomplished by not only avoiding any extraordinary measures to exclude earth, but through actually creating features which allow access to the earth from within the areaway. This change is simple only after hindsight. Prior to the present invention those skilled in the art would have no doubt felt that providing open access to the earth would be highly undesirable. Prior to the present invention, those skilled in the art simply taught away from allowing for access to the earth from within the areaway, just as prior to the Webb invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,334 they had taught away from use of the areaway as a means for escape. On this latter aspect the present invention actually enhances the safety features mentioned in Webb by making them more practical and safer for the occupant in an emergency or panic situation. It also allows for access by emergency personnel and provides a design which can be easily and economically retrofitted to the exterior of existing structures. Attempts by those skilled in the art were simply inadequate because they assumed that the problem of excluding earth was critical to commercial success of an areaway and because means of escape required integration with the foundation. Instead, the present invention discloses the realization that access to the earth is not only desirable from an installation perspective, but also from the consumer's perspective as well and that escape can be provided without modification of the existing foundation. The degree to which these seemingly simple recognitions are significant seems apparent when one considers that the present invention, although unexpectedly simple in achieving these goals and overcoming the limitations of the prior art, has not been available even though areaways have existed for over one hundred years.